After our great morning at Animal Kingdom we went back to the house and the kids all napped while Zach and I worked on getting things packed and done so we could head out first thing the next morning.
I promised the big three if they went to sleep quick that we’d head out quick and they followed through so once they woke up we hit up Magic Kingdom!
This was my first time doing Magic Kingdom solo at night. I’m glad I did Epcot first as Magic Kingdom is a different beast when it comes to crowd levels at nighttime and all exiting the park at once!
We have a new game we play at the parks called “remember where we parked!” I still took a pic to make sure we all remembered because I assumed by 11:00 that night memories would probably be a bit foggy 😉
We literally have NEVER ridden the parking tram. Not once. Ever. We always get great parking spots but I’m not Zach. I’m not as strategic with finding spots and knowing where to go for them. So I parked where I was directed to park which was super far from ticketing/monorail.
It was HOT and I knew we had a long afternoon ahead and I didn’t want to kick off our time drenched in sweat from pushing the stroller that far and walking. So we got on the parking tram. Which was tricky with my massive double stroller and three kids by myself. SO thankful for the MANY sweet people who helped me fold up my stroller! It was quite a pain and it’s for sure easier to just walk and we all agreed we’d be walking back that night (an easy thing for the girls to agree too when they get to be pushed in the stroller ha!)
Britt’s face is like “what the heck is a parking tram?”
Annoyed we didn’t walk because he swore it would have been faster (yeah and SWEATIER)
Monorail!
We’re HOME!
We had one main mission for our afternoon: Millenial Pink Milkshakes.
I’d been seeing a bunch about it on social media and HAD to try it. Growing up I was obsessed with strawberry milk (chocolate milk but in strawberry form) and I heard that this treat tasted a lot like my childhood obsession. I was SO PUMPED to try it!
We got two to share!
But first…pics by the galactic purple wall 🙂
This is the great thing about being solo with the kids…I can get SO MANY PICS. We walked our shakes over to the wall and lucked out and a photo pass photographer happened to be there and there also happened to not be anyone else there either. As the kids got their pics they went over and started digging in!
Seriously some of my fav Disney pics EVER.
Yall. I hope they keep it on as a permanent menu item (but knowing my luck they won’t ha!). It is AMAZING. SO SO SO good. The cotton candy adds the perfect touch! The marshmallow is super messy so I didn’t even eat it but the kids liked it! We all agreed: Best Disney Treat Ever.
Had to get some plain purple wall pics too!
Of course I turned this into a “magic shot” for Britt 😉
My girls!
After our treat and photo fun we headed over to Monsters Inc Laugh Factory.
It’s seriously an awesome experience that never gets old or boring. It’s different every time and always has us laughing!
This time Kye’s joke FINALLY got picked!!!
And…shocker…Britt got chosen from the crowd to participate in the show
(You gotta watch it…she’s ADORABLE)
I’m telling yall she ALWAYS gets picked for stuff…good thing she likes attention 😉
These two were on CLOUD NINE about getting to be part of the show!
I felt bad Daddy wasn’t there to be part of it but we sent him the videos 🙂
We had a fastpass for Buzz and even with the fastpass the wait was pretty long. Buzz gets SWAMPED in the afternoons!
My kids are always awesome with waiting in line. They don’t complain and we spend the time looking for hidden mickeys or playing games or just talking. They really are so awesome to do the parks with!
Brother love 🙂
Our Game was pretty intense 😉
Even with Tess in my lap I balled out 😉
Kye’s highest score ever!
If I could choose any ride to stop moving it’d be Buzz. The game keeps going even when you’re stuck sitting there so it’s a great opportunity to rack up points!
One day he’ll get that perfect score, but he’s still our Galactic Hero 🙂
We got you Zurg!
We hit up the gift shop next-door because they have a good bit of Star Wars stuff and, shocker, Britt wanted to spend more of her money to buy yet another stuffed animal!
Kye parted with his money too as he wanted a new lightsaber and got one based of the Star Wars Rebels series
Couldn’t leave little Tessie out 🙂
For this adventure I let the kids each choose a fastpass experience (which works nicely when you only have three kids in your party ha!). Kye chose Buzz. We had awhile until the girl’s fast passes came up so we decided to hop on Carousel of Progress.
This is an original attraction to the park and is one of those “cult favorites” I’m ALL about some Tiki Room but am not a die-hard for Carousel of Progress. It’s a great attraction, just not something I am hardcore about doing.
There is NEVER a wait so it’s always a great one to hop on when crowds are heavier.
I don’t think Tess has ever done it before and we all enjoyed it!
I love just parking the stroller and walking through the lands together. It’s probably my favorite thing about mom-solo time. We just take our TIME and soak it UP. Everyone was all about some dancing 🙂
Girl’s Dancing (they got moves!)
Another one that rarely has any sort of wait is People Mover! We hadn’t done it in YEARS and it was a bit more “thrilling” than I’d remembered it being. I def regretted sitting facing backwards…some of those curves got me feeling a little queasy!
I struggle to find cute ears for myself b/c I have a massive head (I legit measured it and it’s 24 inches…which is a mens extra large haha) so headbands hurt and also look kinda weird most of the time.
I found these infant headbands that work PERFECTLY as ponytail holders!
The views are AWESOME and it really does a great overview of Tomorrowland…including a chance to see inside Space Mountain
We grabbed the stroller and headed to the castle!
I will say that this was a pretty light crowd day. It was Dapper Day (Which Zach mentioned he’d like to participate in someday! SCORE) and I loved seeing all the cute outfits. There were a LOT of “instagrammers” around the parks taking tons of pictures but really weren’t a ton of people on the rides or walking around. Good to remember that the last weekend in April is rather slow!
Castle Pic!
Kye looks like he wants to murder Tink haha
I love any opportunity to walk through the castle. So often we go around it or enter Fantasyland via other lands so I was glad we could go through it this time!
For Britt’s fastpass she wanted to meet Cinderella. We haven’t ever met Cinderella at Princess Hall I don’t think? We’ve only ever met her at Cinderella’s Royal Table I believe.
For the past while her “princess partner” has been Elena. Which is probably another reason we haven’t visited.
I’m not against tv shows but tend to stick to DVDS for my crew over TV watching. You can read why here 🙂 Because of that we’ve actually never seen an episode of Elena’s show and literally know nothing about her.
I love interacting with characters and I hoped we didn’t seem out of place for not really knowing her very well!
She was really, really great. Like even if you’re like us and don’t really know who she is or anything about her storyline, she’s an awesome princess to meet. She was so interactive that poor Cinderella spent a lot of time just standing and waiting and she came over to us a lot in the line to chat us up which was a fun experience!
Elena made the error of asking Kye what he was holding…hello Star Wars knowledge to the max haha
And they had to show Elena how a lightsaber fight
We entered not knowing Elena and left LOVING her. She was so great and it made me want to watch her show!
I love this…such a typical girl trying to impress a boy and he’s not into it ha!
Cute smiles all around!
Tess loves bringing little friends of the characters we meet and showing it to them!
We made sure to let Cinderella know that as new princesses come onto the scene (coughElenacough) that we still love and appreciate the classics and that she’ll always be our favorite!
I’m trying to get more individual pics but like ones of just the girls together with princesses too!
Princess Minnie!
Assumed she’d be able to pull it out again since she did it last time 😉
Nope, force didn’t work either 😉
Random strangers at Disney are SO NICE always offering to take pics!
And I want to mention it’s ALWAYS men who offer?!?! Which totally surprises me because I feel like men don’t notice picture taking opportunities ha!
A fun thing about being so chill is deciding things on the fly. We literally went to the park with ONLY those three fastpass experiences planned. Nothing else. We checked out the app for wait times and then decided to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Zach is super anti-Winnie the Pooh (I know random, but he despises it with a passion). Kye is the only one of our kids to have ridden the ride and it’s only because when we came with Zach’s family they all wanted to ride it.
It’s been so long that I didn’t even remember a single thing about it but was totally down to give it a go!
“shhhh don’t tell Daddy” 😉
The line was around 25 minutes which is pretty long for us but they have these awesome screens of honey that kept the kids completely happy. The waiting area is also covered and wasn’t a bad line at all. Def one I wouldn’t complain about waiting in again!
It was more adventurous that I’d thought it’d be and we all liked it!
I don’t regret bringing the stroller and am a firm believer that a stroller is a MUST HAVE item. BUT we didn’t use it a ton. I parked it when we first arrived at the park in Tomorrowland and didn’t grab it until we headed to Fantasyland. Then I parked it again and just left it for a long time there too!
We walked from Winnie the Pooh to ride another low wait time ride: The Little Mermaid!
I’ve never seen a photo pass photographer outside The Little Mermaid and was SO PUMPED about it!!!
How GROWN does Kye look?!?!
Awesome magic shot!!!
Beast’s Castle
Time for Tess’s Fastpass choice: Peter Pan!
Last time we rode it she was upset that I didn’t get a picture of the crocodile at the end but she was so glad I did this time 🙂
I’ve mentioned this tip before but if you have Memory Maker then you can take advantage of ALL of the photo booths around the parks. There is a new one outside of Tomorrowland Speedway where you can create your own Driver’s License!
It was fun to make ’em and even more fun to see the end results! You simply scan your band and the photos sync to your app 🙂
We scooped up my dinner and refilled our popcorn bucket then found a spot for the fireworks shows.
Zach does NOT like the massive crowds at the night shows. It’s always a bit stressful b/c I want to see and have a good spot but also don’t want to bother him and make him annoyed at all the people.
Enter the benefit of being the sole parent…I got to make all the decisions ha! So we got as close to the castle as we could get.
Timing again worked in our favor as we walked up about 20 minutes prior to the first night show and the cast members were just closing off the front walkway to allow people to fill in so we hopped right in and filled in!
I sent this to Zach and said “I know you’re jealous haha”
My dinner. Always and forever at the parks!
The kids had their dinner packed and ate while we waited for the show.
We did have a bit of an issue. We waited our time. And I was BY MYSELF with THREE kids who all wanted to be able to see. I planned for the girls to use the stroller and thought Kye could stand against a trashcan since they are hardcore about no one being allowed to sit on trashcan.
Well. These two instagrammers ran over right when the show started and literally shoved in front of Kye so they could lean on the trashcan and take a billion pics (with flash, of course) of the back of their heads as they watched the fireworks. Nope.
I was a bit farther back, far enough where they couldn’t hear me if I hollered to them. So I told Kye to tap them on the shoulder. Which MORTIFIED him but sorry it had to be done. I explained to them that we had waited for that spot. My child was going to be standing there and that they’d have to make room for him. They did. Sorta. But they kept edging him out. Which was just RUDE.
I am all about a cute pic. Duh. Who isn’t? But take ONE and move on. Especially if you’re using flash in the complete dark when a billion people around you are trying to see fireworks. UGH.
I don’t know if Magic Kingdom always uses this schedule but Happily Ever After was the first night show and then afterwards was Once Upon A Time.
Obviously for name purposes I felt like it was a silly line up? PLUS Happily Ever After is a billion times superior to Once Upon A Time. It just didn’t make any sense to me to have them in the order they had them and I hope it’s not an every day schedule?
If it is then I’ll give you a tip: Leave after Happily Ever After. Seriously. Once Upon a Time is cute and fine but it’s NOTHING after watching Happily Ever After. Happily Ever After is superior to Wishes yall and that’s saying a lot. It’s truly THE perfect way to end your day at the park!
Seeing my little girl way finding to Moana was SO ADORABLE.
Seeing it so close was truly magical. I don’t have the best vision and was really able to see details on the castle that I’d never seen before. It was incredible.
It also totally had me overcome with emotion. To be standing there in my happiest place just made me so thankful. I’m so blessed with my family: my husband, babies, and our lives together. I’m truly LIVING my Happily Ever After!
“Love is an Open Door” is one of my FAV songs b/c it can relate so much to adoption!
And the finale yall. WHEW. EMOTIONAL.
Moana!
A TON of the crowds cleared out when Happily Ever After ended so we hung out to wait on Once Upon A Time to start. Kye was practicing with his light saber and a cast member cleaning crew came by. One of the guys started battling Kye with his broom stick! Kye loves telling the story how the cast member didn’t expect Kye to be as skilled as he is and that he quickly retreated haha
Don’t try to take our spot or block our view!
Once Upon a Time is very cute and well done so I’m not saying it’s awful or anything…I’m just saying it’d be a better lead-up to Happily Ever After rather than following it.
So few crowds that Britt was able to stand and watch. Made my heart melt just thinking of the memories she’s making and having and that I get to experience them with her. (And duh “Let it Go” is always a MOMENT)
Here we come Main Street Usa!
Something I wasn’t fully thinking through were the massive crowds while exiting. It’s a tad scary to be in amongst that many people and trying to push a double stroller and keep an eye on my other child too!
We took our time and stayed together and all agreed to ride the Ferry rather than the monorail.
A couple of epic things happened. First, Tess wanted a fruit roll up to eat while we waited between the two shows so I gave her one. She’s a SUPER slow eater and I’m sure was distracted by the show too much to be eating a ton during it so she wasn’t finished with the fruit roll up and was continuing to eat it as we exited the park.
Omg yall. When I gave it to her I’d offered to take it off the wrapper but little miss independent wanted to do it HERSELF. Except she totally didn’t do it. At all. She’d eaten over half the fruit roll up WITH THE PLASTIC WRAP AROUND IT.
Thankfully it never caused any digestion issues or poop issues or anything! But it was SO GROSS so I’m trying to navigate all this while also tossing the told fruit roll up and digging in my bag to find a replacement for her. #momskills
The second epic moment happened in the parking lot. On the way into the park we rode the parking tram but I just pushed through and walked to the car when the park closed. I get really nervous in public places alone, especially at night and the parking lot was pretty vacant of people which freaked me out a bit.
So I was rushing to get everyone and everything in and settled. I get in and start the car and Tess says “I gotta go potty really bad.” Oh. Man.
I just took her out of the car and had her squat behind the door and go in the Magic Kingdom Parking Lot. Sorrynotsorry.
She instantly fell asleep and was snoring!
We didn’t get back to the house till 11:00 and had to be on the road by 7 am in order to check the big kids into school. I felt bad that they’d be SO TIRED. But it was totally worth it and they handled it all really well!
The ride home went great and check out these two holding hands.
We had SUCH a fun weekend and I truly loved my experience of having the kids solo at MK at night. I love ALL of Disney. Disney ANYTHING brings me such joy but nothing can compare to the magic of Magic Kingdom. It IS the most magical place in the world 🙂
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|J
I am so glad you all are getting to enjoy all the time at Disney these days…wise investment.. YOU are a brave woman taking the kiddos at night. YOU did awesome…I would like to tag alone one time and just sit and people watch, ( I don't ride any longer) but I would hold Spear and watch those that didn't want to ride too, because YOU would be the perfect guide…ENOY ENJOY ENJOY all these times and memories made…what a family!! Love and hugs